Hi everybody,

Thank you all so much for your kind words on the last chapter. All of you. It means so much to be knowing you enjoy what I write down.

I hope you'll all appreciate this next chapter. Drama, action and yes, also more thoughts from the other triangle, Charley this time.

Enjoy!

Chapter 19

He was there. She just knew it. Where else would that mouse run off to? To a park to get some fresh air? To the city centre or the pier to get a couple of dogs and rootbeer? No, he was most definitely at her house, she was sure of it. But the way he left was weird. It did not seem like he was planning on going out at all. After all she had found him to be fast asleep when she arrived at the scoreboard. Even after he woke up, they had a short conversation, not rushed at all as if he was planning on going out.

No, it wasn't until she mentioned Izzy being asleep at the garage that Stoker's behaviour changed. Now that she really thought about it, he didn't act his usual self. No, macho mouse bravado attitude. No, batting his eyelashes or wiggling his eyebrows before making some inappropriate comment about her sister-in-law. It was almost as if he was,- worried. Was that what it had been? Was Stoker concerned about Izzy being alone?

"No way." Charley muttered under her breath. She shook her head. She was only imagining things. Of course that wasn't it.

There was no reason to be worried about her. The woman tightened her hands around the steering wheel. Whatever was going through Stoker's head when it came to Izzy, it was safe to say that Charley did not care much for it. First he followed her sister-in-law by climbing into the back of her truck. Then he made a connection with Izzy's mind, in her kitchen no less. He also hid himself in her motel room and spent the night there. Basically every chance he got to get her alone, he'd so far taken.

Throttle had been wrong. This wasn't just some crush thing that happened because of senses, just because they were Martian and their biology worked differently. Stoker was completely smitten with her sister-in-law.

Vinnie and Modo had confirmed it partially, when she was driving back with the two of them from the pawn shop to get a new refrigerator. Everybody has a scent, unique and specific to each individual. They were able to describe Izzy's scent perfectly, but hers had no effect on them. Charley had been incredibly curious about the whole concept of scents and wondered why they'd never bothered to explain that part of their being to her before.

She simply had to know about herself. What was her scent like? It felt weird hearing the two mice describe to her how she smelled to them. Vinnie had acted incredibly awkward, but he always did that when she got too close to him. Sure, the youngest mouse did not shy away from flirting with her, but in the end it was all talk and no action. Everytime she tried to get closer to him, he'd make a joke and wave her off.

But Modo had told her. In detail, in one deep breath, as if he knew exactly what he was talking about. 'You smell like sandalwood and jasmine. The early morning when riding through a forest after it has rained.'

Oh, how embarrassed she had felt and flattered at the same time. Especially the moment when Vinnie made the comment that her scent changed when she was working really hard, like crackling fire.

And she was certain she caught Modo twitching his nose, as if he was focusing on her scent right there and then. She could have sworn he'd let out a low growl afterwards. Charley would be lying if that moment hadn't made her stomach flutter. When it came to her friends, most specifically Modo and Vinnie, she was never certain how to feel.

When she met the three mice for the first time, she was shocked. Frightened even, but only for a moment. Vinnie was already laying the compliments on thick, leaving both Modo and Throttle to make fun of the white mouse's apparently typical behaviour. The other two mice were kind to her from the get go, and as polite as any person could get. Modo most of all. Throttle treated her with respect, kindness and always ready to approach situation with a level-headed perspective. He knew what to say to make Charley feel at ease when things were tense or when things went wrong.

After time went by, she got used to Vinnie's antics of always making teasing comments. Complimenting her beauty and at the same time his own. She loved it though. She enjoyed the attention that he gave her. Of course he was an oddball, always breaking things and getting into mischief. But the way he winked and smiled at her, it made her feel warm inside every time. She didn't even mind the fact that she reminded him of a girl he once loved, Harley. In a weird sense she felt honoured, as it meant that Vinnie would always look out for her, despite his macho behaviour.

Modo was another story. The polite and gentle tall giant. From day one he called her, ma'am, Charley-girl or any other form of kind endearments. Like the other two mice, he also looked out for her. Only it was clear that he went the extra mile. He was usually the first one there whenever she fell, got hurt or was in some kind of difficult situation. He may not be as flirtatious like Vinnie or on point with words like Throttle. But he was Modo. Sweet Modo.

Now that she thought about it, she'd been quite mean to him yesterday by climbing on the back of Vinnie's ride instead of his. Especially after the talk they had inside her house. Modo was disappointed. Not only could Charley tell it from the way his shoulders had slumped, but the way he kept turning his head their way as they rode towards the scoreboard.

Truth of the matter was, Modo had been acting rather differently the last week compared to how he normally approached her. Not that he was different in the way that he showed compassion and kindness, but his actions had become more,- intense. She couldn't really explain it as it was more of a feeling, but she got it every time they were alone together. He seemed more open with his way of showing affection. A more intenser gaze, more inclined to find ways to touch her arm, hand, or anything else within a proper distance. They'd even held hands on the couch for a long period of time a a couple of days ago.

Charley couldn't figure out how she really felt about it. It was different then Vinnie, but just as welcome. She cared for Modo. She liked Modo. But why was it more awkward for her to hold his gaze longer than a couple of seconds than when she looked at Vinnie?

The female mechanic shook her head and glanced into her rear-view mirror. She'd begun to notice something odd about the car currently driving behind her. He kept the same distance, took the same turns, and if another car happened to cut in front of him, he'd still took the same route as she was. At first Charley thought it had just been her imagination. Chicago was a large city, surely lots of cars went into the same direction most of the time. But seeing as this had been going on for ten minutes already, she was starting to get suspicious.

The Last Chance Garage was only a couple of minutes away. But something in her gut told her that the last thing she wanted to do was to return to the garage. Once again the auburn haired woman peered into her rear-view mirror, quietly watching the car behind her. Technically she could have been home by now, had she not driven around the neighbourhood twice.

It was clear that whoever was following her, wasn't going to let her out of his sight. This was quite a predicament. Should she go home or should she drive back to the guys? If the person following her had ill intentions, she did not want to lead them back to Izzy and she also couldn't let them discover the location of the guys at the scoreboard.

She picked up the microphone and tuned it to the radio at her garage, hoping Izzy was still downstairs. "Hello, Izzy. It's Charley, come in."

She waited a couple of seconds before trying again. "Izzy, come in."

But there was no reply. In fact, she couldn't hear anything. Was the radio turned off? But Charley never turned it off. She always left it on in case the guys needed to contact her for something.

"Dang it." She cursed under her breath, having no other choice now then to contact the guys, who were most likely still at the scoreboard. Unless one of them had gotten hungry during the last half an hour. Quickly she changed the frequency and clicked on the microphone.

"Guys? Are you there? Anybody?" It wasn't until then that she noticed the slight pitch in her voice, indicating that she was actually starting to feel anxious with the situation.

She tried again. "Hello, guys. Please answer!"

The Scoreboard

The white mouse was in a sour mood after getting disconnected by Stoker, who turned out to indeed be at the Last Chance Garage. To make matters worse, Vinnie had also slipped up and revealed where Stoker and him had been last night.

From the couch Throttle stared into Vinnie's direction. His heart had jumped when he picked up on Izzy's voice coming through the radio. Apparently Charley wasn't back yet, which was a little bit odd as it wasn't a long drive, even with Chicago traffic. But as quick as the blonde's voice filled the room, it soon got replaced by Stoker's. Throttle knew it. He just knew his former coach had rode off the garage. The conversation between Vinnie and Stoker didn't last long though. The tanned mouse could not believe his ears when he overheard Vinnie accidentally reveal where they had been last night, and Throttle immediately headed towards the youngest mouse to question him on the matter.

"Geez, Throttle." Vinnie yelped the moment he turned around finding his bro standing right behind him. "Could you not do that, you'll be giving me grey fur in no time."

"I overheard what you said to Stoke. Why were the two of you hanging around Charley's place in the middle of the night?"

"Ah man,-" Vinnie groaned. He should have thought things through before letting his big mouth get the better of him. Now he had Throttle to deal with.

"Could you not ask me? It wasn't my idea, that's the truth."

Of course it wasn't, Throttle assumed that immediately. He honestly didn't really care who'd come up with the idea, but he did want to know why they were at Charley's. Even for Stoker that behaviour seemed odd. Throttle knew the guy wasn't in a right state of mind at the moment. But even the older mouse would not head out in the middle of the night to simply hang around the object of his affection like some creep.

"Again, Vincent, why were you two there? I'm,-" He paused and took a deep breath. "I'm not angry, I just want to know. If something is going on and I mean something bad, don't your bros deserve to know? Especially since it has you and Stoker going out during midnight."

Geez, fine. Vinnie reckoned he could tell some details, but the important stuff was reserved for either Stoker or Izzy to tell them. Vinnie had only gone with Stoker mainly because of Charley anyway. The white mouse huffed.

"Stoker was worried about Izzy and Charley being alone at the garage. There's some dude after Izzy, at least Stoker seems to think so. Someone bad. That's why we were there. A precaution, just to make sure nothing happened. If something would have,- well, I would have been right on top of it of course."

Throttle couldn't help but frown as Vinnie explained himself. It was a rather weird story. Why on Earth would Stoker want to keep something like that a secret from everybody else, aside from Vinnie? "Why didn't he tell us?" Throttle asked.

Vinnie shrugged. "He promised Izzy not to tell anyone. But I have this feeling it doesn't really matter anymore. If I were you, I'd ask Izzy or Stoke for the details. I'm going to get some food." With that said the white mouse walked away towards the kitchen to get some breakfast.

Some guy was after Izzy and Stoker had promised her he wouldn't tell anyone? Throttle scratched the back of his head. It would explain why Stoker rushed off this morning when Charley appeared at their place on her own. But who was this supposedly bad guy and why did Stoker think he was after Izzy? Vinnie probably knew, but he was right, this was something Throttle would have to ask Izzy herself.

Suddenly the radio clicked and Charley's voice sounded through the area. "Hello, guys. Please answer!"

Both Vinnie and Throttle looked up into the direction of the communication device. The tanned mouse ran as fast as he could, hearing the slight panic in the woman's voice. "Charley? Is everything alright?" He could hear she was still in her car. She should have been home by now. What was going on?

"Throttle, thank goodness, you picked up. I'm fine, but I think I'm being followed."

In the meantime Vinnie joined him, his eyes wide with worried.

"Where are you, Charley girl?" Throttle asked.

"I'm one block away from the garage, Izzy isn't picking up either. This red car has been following me for the last ten minutes or something. I don't know wha,-" A loud scream followed.

Vinnie reached for the microphone and yanked it out of Throttle's hand. "Charley? Charley!" He shouted, but only static came through. It was clear something had gone terribly wrong.

"Get Modo and track her car for the location. I'm going to go to the garage to get Stoker and your bike. But see if you can reach him through the radio." Throttle ordered already stepping away from the machine.

Vinnie cursed under his breath and followed his bro closely. "Modo and I will contact you the moment we find the car and hopefully Charley."

He was glad Throttle told him to go after her, instead of heading to the garage. Though Vinnie felt rather naked without his ride, getting to Charley as soon as possible was more important to him at the moment.

The Last Chance Garage

She was so soft. Were all humans this soft? Her lips were still pressed against his and he could hear her heart beating, her pulse increased. How long had he been standing there with her body against his? A second? A minute? A day? He was seeing stars. Like those silly tiny lights Earthlings hung in trees during winter time. He felt her tremble beneath his touch, but it wasn't from fear or nerves.

If this had been a different situation, on another planet, with his own species, Stoker wouldn't have taken the same approach. He would have pushed her against something, connected his antennas with her and wrapped his tail around her body. Though these were all things he could still do, but he had no idea how Izzy would respond to that. And honestly, he had waited up until this point, he would be able to take it slower than what was considered normal for him.

He took a deep breath and got hit hard again by the sweet nectar that was her scent. Smooth and bright like the sunrises on Mars. Sweet like those tiny white flowers which used to grow next to the water's edge. It brought back memories of the past. The waters had disappeared quite soon after the Plutarkian war started. But Stoker remembered well enough what the planet used to look like back then, and what it will on day look like again. Even now Mars was slowly but surely already turning green again.

With thoughts of his home filling his mind and Izzy's touch clouding his brain, Stoker decided it was time to come back to reality. Reluctantly he broke their kiss, but kept his face close the her, the distance between their mouths significantly small. Stoker swallowed the lump in his throat and licked his lips before he opened his eyes. Izzy's were already searching for his. He couldn't resist smiling at her.

"You were saying?"

Izzy blinked. "Is this a Martian trick to stop someone from leaving?"

A soft chuckle escaped him as a feeling of relief fell over him. At least she wasn't kicking his ass for what he'd done.

"That depends,-" He breathed.

"Depends?"

"If you're still planning on leaving Chicago?"

She didn't answer his question. Her heart still beating in a fast pace and Stoker was feeling incredibly pleased with himself. Apparently he had not lost his touch at all over the last couple of years. It was taking him a lot of strength to not do the unspeakable to her right there and then on the living room floor. But he was more than willing to convince her again that she belonged there and not on a road leading out of the city.

He quietly traced the scar on the right side of Izzy's face with his fingers. The scar she'd gotten during the accident due to debris flying across the highway from an explosion. Though he had his mind set on kissing her for a second time, Stoker decided to not push his luck. He honestly doubted he would be able to control himself if she'd let him kiss her once more.

The mouse smiled again and straightened himself, while his other hand still rested on her back. "Izzy,-" He said, but her attention was suddenly elsewhere.

"Do you hear that?" She asked.

Stoker blinked and turned his head towards the window. It didn't take him long to realise what the sound was. It was Vinnie's bike. Immediately Stoker's brow furrowed, this wasn't typical behaviour. Something was wrong.

"Stay here." He told her as he let go of her without giving an explanation.

Within a few seconds he was already downstairs and rushed through the workplace to get to the red motorcycle. Somebody was contacting him through the bike's radio. He pushed the button on the board. "Stoker here."

"Coach, it's Modo. We got a call from Charley-girl earlier. Something is wrong. Big time."

"Wrong?" He repeated Modo's words. "What do you mean wrong?"

It was Vinnie who answered. "She said she was being followed by a car. Too afraid to get to the garage because she didn't want to endanger Izzy. I swear Stoke, if this is because of what you told me,-"

"Okay, first things first. Where are you guys right now?" Stoker replied interrupting the white mouse.

"We're following the signal of Charley's truck. It's not too far from the garage. We could really use your help, teach." Modo answered.

"And my bike." Vinnie added.

Blast. Stoker cursed to himself. He didn't doubt for one minute that whoever had gone after Charley was someone who worked for Mr. Morden. Of course he was going to help, he currently had his own personal vendetta against the man. "I'll trace the signal and be right behind you guys. By the way, where's Throttle?"

"On his way to get you,-" Modo paused for a second. "In case we couldn't contact you."

Somehow those words made Stoker feel guilty. It's true that he had been completely absorbed in what took place a minute ago. Honestly, what choice did he have? If he hadn't come over, those goons could have gone after Izzy instead of Charley. He quickly shrugged the feeling off his shoulders. The most important thing now was to get Charley home safe and sound.

"I'll meet up with him. Let me know when you find the truck. Stoker, out."

The need to hurl something into the distance was tempting, but unfortunately there was nothing for Stoker to throw. He couldn't believe this was happening, though he had predicted this would. The older mouse knew exactly how dysfunctional the minds of people like this could be. One thing he had to admit, this Morden fellow worked quick. The moment that henchman showed up at the motel to confront Izzy, his boss was probably already planning the next step.

There were too many questions regarding the situation. Why grab Charley? To get to Izzy or something else? But what Stoker was really starting to wonder, was what the next step was going to be? Contact Izzy most likely. But they were not going to wait for that. They were going to act fast and precise with flair, of course. Martian style.

Stoker sighed and ran a hand through his hair. All that remained now, was getting away from the Last Chance Garage and meet up with his bros, without alerting Izzy. If she got wind of this, she would only blame herself. Something along the lines of, see, I told you this would happen. I shouldn't have come here. But he could not leave without telling her nothing, what on Mars was he going to tell her?

"Is everything alright?"

Stoker froze as he heard Izzy's voice coming from the entrance of the garage. Immediately he wondered how long she'd been standing there. He'd been preoccupied with Modo's message that he didn't think twice of making sure Izzy wasn't there to hear their conversation. Slowly Stoker turned around to face her. Izzy stood in the opening, watching him intensely.

He made his way over to her, trying to quickly make something up that wouldn't trouble her. He stopped a couple of feet from her and cleared his throat. "That was just Modo, contacting me through Vinnie's bike. There seems to be some trouble back at the scoreboard. I have to get back asap."

He tried to sound his jovial self. Normally he would have gotten away with it, but Stoker found it extremely difficult to lie to this woman even if it was for the benefit of her own good. What made it worse, was that she seemed to always prick through his mask. Then again, he seemed to be able to do that just as well when it came to her.

The hazel mouse had to leave soon. Preferably before Throttle would show up. Because if that happened, Izzy would surely realize something bad was going on and he did not want that to happen.

"Well, I'd better get going,-" He exclaimed clapping his hands together. "Can't let those three out of my sight for one second." It was difficult to keep a straight face in front of her. She was eyeing him with doubt and he had no choice but to avert her gaze, otherwise he would surely break.

Stoker walked back towards Vinnie's bike and grabbed his helmet. He could hear Izzy's footsteps approaching him rapidly and he groaned inwardly.

"Something is wrong, isn't there?" She said softly.

He breathed in deeply. He was fairly certain she hadn't heard any details, but it was clear from the way Stoker presented himself at the moment that things weren't peachy.

Once again he turned her way. The look of worry in her blue eyes was disconcerting. "Nothing I haven't seen before." He replied, which actually was the truth.

But thankfully Izzy didn't pry any further. "Alright. Be safe." She said and Stoker felt his heart sank.

Goddess, he did not want to leave her alone. Especially now. There was no telling if Morden would show up here. But he simply couldn't take her with him. He would not be able to keep his focus and Izzy might have experienced things in her life, but this was something he didn't want her to deal with. Charley was in possible danger and he wanted to save his friend alongside his bros.

"Always am, beautiful. Don't you dare go anywhere now." He reached out and stroked her face with his fingers. "Otherwise I'll have to show you more Martian tricks."

Dundundunnnn

Hope you all enjoyed that.

Next chapter...

Things are going to happen!

Have a great day :3